


Paper Hearts

by dreamerkitten



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Paper Hearts Challenge, Pradeshverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-29 00:48:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17797913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamerkitten/pseuds/dreamerkitten
Summary: Life crossroads happen at the most random of times. Some are like a leisurely stroll through a park, others are a whirlwind.  And then there are the ones that come out of no-where and smack you over the head. Welcome Clari Sumner to the chaos that is Fairy Tail and the fun of White Sea.





	Paper Hearts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nightmare Senshi (Saraphin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saraphin/gifts), [Therashae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Therashae/gifts), [enchantedbeauty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/enchantedbeauty/gifts), [Awesomemedic78](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Awesomemedic78/gifts).



> Fairy Tail is the work of Hiro Mashima, not mine. The Pradesh family is the amazing creation of Desna1, the plot and creation of Clari Sumner is mine. Credit goes to Nightmare Senshi for Hestor Kadanza, and all of his wonderful prickliness. Thank you Nightmare Senshi, for your help with building up the bones of the conversation that i started with. Thank you to all of the ladies for your insight and proofing for my first work here on archive. This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but sleep decided to take me instead, oops.

Her journey had started out slow. Being told to go explore on her own for a while had that feeling, but now, something about today, made her feel like her life was at another crossroad in her life. Rolling her head from one shoulder to the other, the woman standing at an average height of 5 foot 4 inches, let out a sigh as she quickly walked through the town of Magnolia, keeping a hand on her leather bag even as her head bopped along with the music she was listening to through her wireless lacrima headphones. Honestly, they were her best investment. She didn't interact with people much, and the barely visible headphones tended to keep others at a distance. Besides, once she got buried in her books, she lost all track of time and didn't hear anything.

 

She had been traveling for a while across the country, after being gently, yet firmly, pushed out of the proverbial door, and told to spread her wings. So she had left, and gathered information as she went from town to town, and had settled on Fairy Tail of the two guilds she wanted to join. Fairy Tail was logical as it was closest, while the second...well the second was a pipe dream as she didn't have a way to get there. So instead she was happy with setting out for Fairy Tail.

 

She just hoped they took her. She had been kept in isolation since she was a child, hidden away, but now that the dark dragon was no longer a threat, she needed to interact with other people. Ugh. Give her books, music, and endless ink any day of the week over dealing with other people.

 

Huffing out a breath, not paying attention to the slight fog that came from it, she hurried her steps, purposely ignoring the magnitude of paper hearts in repeating colors of red, white and pink that were lining the streets. Pausing for a moment, she reached into her bag to pull out a hefty tome, flipping the cover open to start skimming through the information she had already gathered in her travels. Absently she could hear a ruckus ahead of her, slightly muffled, and could only assume that was the guild. Following her instincts, she kept going.

 

It never once occurred to her that she was being watched, curiously, and simply let her instincts guide her feet, only tripping on a stone step before continuing to climb. She kept flipping through her pages of notes, mentally putting together how she would convince the master of this guild to accept her when she felt her space being breached. She had never tried to become part of a guild before, knew she needed training, but she had no idea how to be accepted. She figured that there would be some kind of test or interview. Something to test her maybe?

 

Without looking up she lifted a hand, felt the wood of a heavy door, patted at it for a moment before feeling the smooth metal of a knob and pushed on it, not even acknowledging the change in noise level as she stepped into the bright building, focused instead on her book and her music keeping other noise out.

 

Then she was airborne, landing on a table, and sending what looked like millions of paper hearts and glitter flying into the air to cover herself and everyone around her thoroughly. But she didn't care about that. She didn't even care at the moment about the dark haired, pale skinned, naked male that was sprawled across her, groaning, shifting to try and get up. No, what she cared about had her eyes latched on it as it went spinning through the air, even as her breath stalled in her throat, eyes widening in denial when it descended and landed with an explosion.

 

Of some sort of reddish pink fluid. In a heart shaped punch bowl.

 

The growl that escaped her had the male still sprawled on her freezing in place, slowly lifting his head, even as her head slowly turned, eyes flashing from copper to green and back again, meeting dark eyes under just as dark hair. He just barely managed to gulp at the fury he felt pumping off the decently endowed woman he landed on before feeling what he compared to a mule kick to his stomach as he was sent flying once more, crashing into another group of mages.

 

Rolling to her feet she darted for the punch bowl that was now occupied by her leather bound book and soaking up far too much of whatever had been in the bowl originally. Yanking the book out, she pulled a cloth from her bag and started trying to dry off or soak up whatever was left before flipping the cover open, a whine escaping her at the stained, sticky pages, and running ink. Feeling a hand touch her shoulder she swung around, fist flying only to be caught in firm grip. Running her gaze up over bare feet and legs, she lifted her lip in a silent snarl at the flaccid, and far too small for her tastes, dick before skipping over the hand being held against his torso, and once more met dark eyes.

 

She saw his lips moving, and snarled at him, ripping her hand from his grip to yank her lh-phones from her ears. “Who the hell do I think I am?!? Who the fuck do you think you are to tackle someone and send them flying?!? Do you even pay attention to your surroundings or does your limp dick take out what few brain cells you're lucky to even have?!?”

 

“A stupid book went flying and you mule kick me across the hall?!? How fucking stupid is that?! We don't even know you!” The dark haired mage snapped, reaching out to shove the woman in the shoulder only to stumble back with a yelp when she snarled and launched herself at him, lifting her still damp book over her head to hit the man with it.

 

“Whoa! Whoa there, hold on!” A smooth voice called out even as strong arms caught her in mid air and pulled her against a solid body of muscle. Snapping and snarling, she bucked against her restraints, clawed hands reaching out for the insufferable male standing just a few feet away, watching her in shock.

 

“Well I'll be damned....another slayer...where the hell did you come from?” A gravely voice asked as a tall male with long black hair pushed through the gathered crowd, arms crossing over his chest. Flashing eyes darted over to him and the other slayers surrounding him, before narrowing. She had done her research, she knew all of these slayers, and honestly hadn't expected to see the Pradesh siblings here.

 

“Around.” Was her short answer.

 

“Half truth.” Was heard and she swung her head around to stare at the...tall...hot....

 

“Ok seriously? Does Bosco's air just make all of you ridiculously gorgeous?” She demanded, wriggling to turn around and cross her arms over the brick chest she was held against. She saw the silvery blonde brow arch up, even as sinful lips lifted in a smirk. Long silvery blonde hair fell in a smooth curtain, and her fingers itched to play with it.

 

“Well it certainly doesn't hurt tiny, so, where are you from?” The smooth wicked voice had her rolling her eyes, and before the second voice could press up behind her, she lashed out with a heel, connecting with a knee, and smirked at the yelp that sounded, shrugging at the bland stare she was given from lavender gray eyes.

 

“Not interested Vander, go chase a different pair of legs.” She shot over her shoulder, chuckling at the defeated sound she heard.

 

“How do you know Vander?” The tall elf hanging onto her asked.

 

“I don't know him.”

 

“But you called him by name.”

 

“Yea, being famous will do that. Plus I've bought some of his music.” She shrugged at the tilted head. There was no reason for her to lie, not when confronting a wizard saint mind-bender.

 

“Are you going to answer the question he asked?” The man holding her asked, shifting his arms to a more comfortable position, but not yet releasing her.

 

“Depends.”

 

“On?”

 

“Will I be allowed to kick the ice mages ass for calling my book stupid?”

 

“Maybe. Depends on how truthful your answer is, along with an introduction.”

 

By now she had calmed a good bit, but was still hostile towards the ice mage, and instead wriggled against the tall body again, shooting a knowing look at the hiss she heard come from off to the side of the mage holding onto her.

 

“Fine Master Kaleb, would you mind putting me down though before your little celestial mage tries to tear my face off? I'd prefer to keep it on.”

 

A chuckle was her answer even as she was carefully lowered until her feet touched the ground once more, quickly stepping back when said silver haired, male, celestial mage shoved himself between her and the tall blonde, hissing and spitting at her.

 

“Hopefully you'll forgive him, he gets a bit-”

 

“Prickly. I've heard.” With a roll of her eyes, she turned slowly in place, eyes wandering over the wary crowd, picking out the specific mages she had been watching through magazines and tabloids, news and major events. Eyes landing on the group of slayers, she hurried forward with a smile, elbowing the ice mage out of her way roughly, shaking him off when he tried to grab her. Giving a small bow to the slayers she could smell caution coming from, she growled in reassurance, smiling when they blinked at her then slowly smiled.

 

“My name is Clari Sumner. I've been wandering Fiore for a long time now, since Acnologia was defeated. My mother is Eolas, the bronze dragon, and bookwyrm. I am the bronze dragon slayer, and she sent me on my way once she knew I was safe. Originally I am from Midi though, and have been working my way here since the battle ended.”

 

“Wait....your mother is a bookwyrm? Are you also?” An excited voice spoke up, and Clari shifted her gaze, smiling at the excited brown eyes of Wendy.

 

“Yes I am. My mother instilled a great love of knowledge and books in me. She was actually the keeper of knowledge for the tatsu she had been a part of before they all split up during Acnologia's temper tantrum. Because of that, I was taught over the years who each of you are.” Clari let out a yelp when she found herself tackled by the young sky slayer, barely managing to keep her feet.

 

“I still don't see what the big deal is with some stupid book.”

 

Wendy squeaked and quickly separated herself from the new slayer, watching with wide eyes as Clari slowly turned around, taking in the mid-back length bronze colored hair that shimmered with jewel tones for highlights. Wendy bit her lip in amusement as she saw Clari tuck her hands behind her back, before approaching Gray, the guilds ice mage.

 

“Hmmmm you don't see the big deal huh?”

 

From where he stepped up next to his brother, Farron started to hurry forward, only to stop as Kalebs hand caught his arm. Looking back at him, seeing the familiar smirk and shaking head, he nodded, turning back to watch and be prepared to hurry forward if needed.

 

“Tell me, Gray right? Tell me, that necklace that you wear all of the time? It's important to you right? I can tell from how smooth parts of it are that you fiddle with it regularly, but you never let it leave your person. Tell me, what's the big deal with it? To anyone else it's just a hunk of metal, so what' the big deal if you lose it, or it gets broken?” She asked smoothly, stepping closer until she was right in his space, eyes locked on his, feeling the ice start to build around his hands, seeing the snarl curl his lips, the narrowing of his eyes. “Exactly. Don't automatically assume that just because you don't see something as a big deal, that it isn't for someone else. In the end, all it does is make you look like a complete ass. Now, I'm going to show everyone just how big my own lady balls are, take my book, and try and find a way to fix it. And no, you're not getting an apology from me. I reacted the way I felt was needed. If you don't like it? Too fucking bad, you'd better grow a set since yours obviously hasn't dropped yet.” With that she spun back around and stalked to a table, plopping down to flip open the book she had managed to hang onto through everything. Only those with sensitive hearing were the ones to hear the whimper that escaped Clari as she ran gentle fingers over the still damp, stained pages.

 

Gray was about to storm over to Clari to give her a piece of his mind when a strong hand clamped down on his shoulder, halting him. Shooting a glare over his shoulder, he met a crimson gaze and rolled his eyes before stalking off in the opposite direction. Letting out a sigh, Gajeel looked down to the little blue haired mage that had appeared at his side.

 

“Is there anything you can do shrimp?”

 

“I don't know, but let me see.” With that Levy hurried towards Clari, quick to slide onto the bench next to her and strike up a conversation.

 

“So you saw her coming to the guild today huh?” Kaleb asked Farron, leaning back against a wood post, humming softly at the small warm body that was pressed tightly up against him, keeping others away with well placed glares and the occasional hiss.

 

“Yea I caught snippets of her soul, or souls technically, and it intrigued me. She was looking through that book of hers, putting together a way to convince Master Laxus to accept her to the guild. She was completely buried in the book, but there was something....I don't know what exactly, I think her power may still be very raw. It was like her instincts were guiding her, keeping her from running into things, and she was listening to music even as she skimmed through her books. I got distracted by a couple of things I needed to pick up otherwise I would've kept that bit of chaos from happening.”

 

“I see. So she's without a guild, needs training, and is a slayer. Let me speak with her, maybe I can convince her to come with us, take her in at White Sea.”

 

"Are we a home for wayward untrained mages?" Hestor growled and tipped his head back, "we don't even know she has the knowledge she claims." the man narrowed his eyes in challenge.

 

"Hes..." Kaleb looked amused though, "She does have knowledge, would be good at research...possibly a very intelligent conversational partner."

 

"You are attempting to ply me to make me give up, aren't you?" A silver brow slowly raised.

 

Kaleb shrugged, "Fairy Tail already has a decent script and rune mage..."

 

"...let her be their problem," He scowled as he stared at the other firmly, "...you're not giving up."

 

"It wouldn't be hard to teach her script magic..." He looked across the room, "and we both know that Fiore does not need any more wild slayers, you've said so in the past."

 

"I blame you, for anything that goes wrong, but fine, let's go recruit a slayer." Huffing in irritation, Hestor was quick to summon his Ermine spirit to draw some extra comfort and protection from. Ermine was good for perching on his shoulder and keeping unwanted touches at bay. Stopping at the table with the bronze haired slayer, Hestor was quick to run a gaze over her, taking in the black leggings, short black skirt, and deep green turtleneck that was peppered with....glitter....and small paper hearts.

 

“Can I help you Mr. Kedanza?” Clari asked, keeping her hands on her book, working with Levy to try and remove the stains with a variety of scripts and runes. Lifting a brow at her distracted voice, he took a seat across from her after carefully brushing away some the hearts that littered the table and bench. Feeling a nudge he huffed and scooted over, Kaleb taking the spot across from her. “And you Master Kaleb?”

 

“Well, it's obvious you know who were are.”  
  


“Little hard not to when traveling and seeing you plastered across almost every magazine and news shout out. You learn to pay attention.” Clari answered absently, fingers turning another damp page carefully, mind shifting through what she knew to see if there was something she could do to restore the book.

 

“Fair enough. What do you plan to do now that you're here?”

 

“I would think a mind-bender mage would have already picked up on that, even if he didn't purposely look. Besides I overhead you with your mate. And you're right. I do need training. I came here first because it's on the same continent as I am, and I didn't have the means to get to Bosco. So if you'll accept me, I'd be thrilled to join White Sea.” Clari finished with a sigh, lifting her eyes, and head from her book, meeting the humored gaze with her own.

 

“How much do you know about Bosco?” Hestor asked, leaning an elbow on the table, running a critical eye over the smeared ink on the ruined pages. Even though the ink was now smeared or blotched, even through the damage, he could see the neat and direct notes that were written, and could appreciate what that typically meant of a person.

 

“Not nearly as much as I'd like. Or more, not how it is now. I know more about it's history then how it is now.”

 

“Well then,” Kaleb paused, pulling a bar of foil wrapped chocolate on the table towards him, taking a moment to unwrap it and break off a piece, holding it up and catching Clari's gaze. “How about we start with sealing the deal to take you with us? The way Boscans usually do that is with a kiss, and since it's Valentines Day, let's do that with Boscan kissing chocolate.”

 

Eyeing the chocolate carefully, small nose twitching at the smell wafting toward her, she contemplated the option for a moment before shrugging and nodding. “Sure why not, I'm all for new knowledge.”

 

The sudden wicked curve of Kalebs lips had a shiver racing down her spine, watching as he popped the piece of chocolate into his mouth, waited a moment, then leaned forward and reaching out a hand to cup the back of her neck, she followed his guidance. The first caress of his lips against hers had her gasping at the sensation that ran through her nerves, quickly followed by full brain shut down when his chocolate coated tongue touched hers, bringing with it the crisp taste of fresh apples and....dew? If she didn't know any better she would think that he tasted like the dawn!

 

“Okay, okay, that’ll be enough,” Hestor hissed and yanked on Kaleb’s hair, eyes narrowed on the slayer. “Mine.” the tone was one that could rival a dragon’s claim.

 

Kaleb drew back, releasing her lips, and when she leaned back to sit on the bench, she just kept going, landing on her back with a slight thud, giddy laughter escaping her.

 

Less than twenty minutes after walking in the doors of her second choice for a guild and she was being accepted to her dream one instead. Crossroads indeed!

 

Peering over the edge of the table at her, Hestor and Kaleb exchanged knowing smirks, shaking their heads when Levy fell over on the same bench from laughing too hard as the last rune sunk into the books pages, restoring it to it's previous clean state.

 

 

 

 


End file.
